The Rules of Magic
I have to credit Alex (of Cirsova) for helping me identify a problem I didn’t know I had. I have been operating without knowing or understanding the Rules of Magic.
I don’t really mean B/X magic, I mean my magic.
I’ve been playing Skyrim lately, and that’s probably helped too.
My rules are an amalgam of rules from several generations of D&D:
– Any character (of any class or level) can cast a spell from a scroll. The character must read the scroll to use it. The process consumes the scroll.
– A scroll can be copied into a spellbook by taking 8, 16, or 24 hours to do so (based on the spell’s tier). The process consumes the scroll.
– A magic-user can choose one spell to add to his spellbook per level. The new spell must be of his level or lower. The process takes 8, 16, or 24 hours (based on the spell’s tier). The same process is used for creating new spells.
– To cast a spell from a spellbook: the spellbook must be present, and the magic-user must have mastered the spell.
– A magic-user can master spells of his level or lower, but may copy scrolls of any level into his spellbook. (If the scroll is of a higher level, the character will have to wait to master the spell until after they’ve advanced.)
– Mastering a spell requires 8, 16, or 24 hours (based on the spell’s tier). The process can also take place at any time the magic-user adds the spell to a spellbook, whether copying it from a scroll or another spellbook.
– A magic-user can make a copy of some or all of his spellbook in half the time it normally takes to create spells. The spellbook must be present to copy spells.
– A magic-user can create a scroll in a similar process to copying a spellbook. The spellbook must be present to create the scroll, and the magic-user must have mastered the spell. The magic-user must pay any costs associated with casting the spell at the time he creates the scroll.
– Special Note. Magic-users can not read, copy, master, or in any way utilize the spellbooks of other magic-users without intervention. The Read Magic spell is the most common method of sharing spellbooks.
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I think that might be it, but don’t quote me on that.
I’ve had big, long lists of spells waiting for me to sit down and write them up for some time now. Maybe I’ll even get around to it some day.
I really like a lot of those.
One of the problems with scrolls in RPGs is that a lot of DMs don’t put enough low level scrolls lying around, I feel. If I recall, there ARE a number of protection spells that are scroll exclusive as well as Clerical scrolls: those scrolls are written in common and, I believe, can be used by anyone. The creation of these scrolls isn’t really expounded on in B/X, which is part of why I created the Abbey Monk class.
To me, it has always made sense that a magic user should be able to copy a deciphered scroll into their spellbook or make a scroll straight from their own (with significantly less money cost than the book states).
Understandably, copying a deciphered scroll would be more difficult than making a scroll of your own, if you work with the assumptions behind magic writing and read magic, that all spells are written in a unique glyph cipher by creator, wherein symbols push the cognitive buttons of the mage who wrote it to evoke the necessary mental state and ::fingerquotes:: “dweomers” to memorize the spell to cast. Therefore, copying a deciphered scroll is less along the lines of a scribe making a drawn (rather than written) facsimile and more along the lines of a masterful translator carefully conveying the meaning of a significant work into another language without losing the necessary nuances. That said, i feel like one should ALSO be able to make facsimiles of scrolls which would probably require repeated deciphering to use, but would bear the hallmarks of the original author (if scrolls have numismatic value beyond their simple spell creation for instance; i’d imagine an original scroll penned by Tenser himself would have a certain value above a 4th or 5th generation copy). This would also give thief classes something extra cool to do; they may not be able to cast spells from scrolls (or at least not easily, like in the case of DCC), but they could certainly make a copy that ought to work.
I really don’t think that the cost to create scrolls makes a lot of sense, at least in the non-Holmes editions. The cost doesn’t reflect the product (especially if XP costs are required for item creation) and doesn’t really bear out. I’m reminded of the Richard Burlew comic where the apprentice shows up and is all “I know you said you needed 10,000 GP worth of gems, but I got a great deal on these!” and the wizard is all D:<.
RE: 10,000 GP gems
“You march right back out there and spend the rest of those GP on gems!”
…
Thanks! :)
Some of my rulings are more reactionary than others. I didn’t realize until your blog post exactly why it bothered me that anyone in 4e could use any spellbook to cast a spell once they had mastered it. A lot of the terminology here was pulled from 4e, but reorganized a bit.
And in 3e, it bothered me that the Read Magic cantrip, Decipher Script, Knowledge (Arcana), and the Spellcraft skills all seemed to dance around the same issue. Oh, and I suppose a Rogue with a high enough Search + Disable Device check would also fall under that category.
I appreciate effect overlap, but 3e overdid it in some places.
I haven’t really settled on prices for anything, so I left costs vague. The most important stuff for me to get down for the moment were times and basic limits. I like that anyone in 4e can perform its “spells” (referred to as rituals in 4e), with minimal requirements. So I left it vague as to the definitions of “magic-user.”
I prefer the “tactical” roles of the thief, priest, and magic-user in 4e over their “resource” roles in… uh, other editions. It took me a while to realize that I prefer that _resource management_ be similar across PCs, so you only have to learn that once, but that their tactical roles vary. I realize I just said the same thing twice, but it bears repeating.
If this comes across as scatterbrained, well… it is.
Knowledge Spellcraft made sense in a very strange limited way in which I may be misremembering 2e Counterspells. In 2e, various spells had their opposites which would negate them. Now, if you followed the letter of the law, a wizard declares casting at the top of the round, actually begins casting on his initiative, and then the spell finally goes off once enough round segments have passed. During that time, his spell can be stopped by assorted interuptions (like being punched in the face) or can be countered by a MU who gets the opposing spell off. What 3e did was codify a rule that allowed PCs to objectively deterine what was about to be hurled at them when a MU started casting so they could either run like hell or try to cast a counterspell. Ironically, in a world in which mages have to cast spells to read each other’s handwriting like a pharmacist deciphering a doctor’s prescription note, it makes even less sense that you could recognize what’s going on by the first few lines of mumbo jumbo and hand-gesticulations. But it’s really all flavor.
As for tactical roles vs. resource roles, it really depends on how the group is playing the game. We use minis for everything in the AD&D game I’m in; one of the best examples I can think of is how everyone tries to crowd around the paladin to get his radius buffs. Spell and ability effects tend to come into play much more often, as do lines of sight and cover. Admittedly, most fighter-related resource tracking comes in the form of keeping up with their ranged ammo.
One of the places that I do note that B/X is lacking is in thieves’ tactical abilities; Thieves do not have backstab (though I HAVE allowed it circumstantially in my own games) which takes away a lot of the tactical impetus of the class. But yeah, another thing I’m loving about DCC? A 1st level thief has a 75-80% chance to steal some rube’s purse instead of a 20% chance. In a lot of ways, at first glance, DCC feels like what 3e should have been. I’m pretty impressed by the thief skill list; there’s nothing that feels redundant and I like that alignment affects the growth of those skills.
So, I went and found the Beta version of DCC to skim…